New, strategically placed units responsive to everything from signal malfunctions to sick customers are at the core of the new chairman's "emergency" plan ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The program will require an injection of some $836 million of new operating and capital funds, which Lhota said the state aims to split with the city.

He did not specify how much the city should pay, but Cuomo said the report seeks 50/50 share. That would cost the city $418 million.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has not been amenable to Cuomo and Lhota's calls for City Hall to give more funding to the authority, saying it has yet to spend what the city has already given it and siphoned money away from subway maintenance. The mayor said after Lhota's announcement that the city expects to contribute to the next capital plan, not the interim measures.

Appearing at a City Hall station and speaking over arriving and departing R and W trains and a handful of hecklers, the mayor insisted the MTA could finance the plan entirely out of the $2.5 billion in capital money the city contributed in 2015 and out of the $456 million in operating funds the state has diverted from the authority's budget over the past six years.

Nonetheless, he seemed to appreciate the change in tone, and praised both Lhota and the specifics of his proposal.

"A good start has been put forward," he said. "But let's be clear: the resources are in the hands of the state government right now, and they need to apply those resources."

The mayor said he would proffer his police force to stop littering that causes track fires, the Fire Department to help deal with sick passengers, and Department of Homeless Services personnel to assist with outreach in the trains. Lhota was not impressed.

"It is befuddling that the mayor praised the MTA repair plan, but said he would not agree to fund it 50/50 with the state," Lhota said in a statement Tuesday evening. "One half of a repair plan won’t make the trains run on time."

Lhota left open the possibility of appealing to the state Senate and Assembly for more money should the mayor refuse to cooperate—and foreclosed on the notion of increasing the cost per ride.

"Raising fares is not an option," he said at the press conference at the MTA's lower Manhattan headquarters. The agency is expected to keep to its preset schedule of periodically raising fares.

The plan's initial phase will address what causes 79% of the major incidents that delay trains, including signals, track and power problems.

This plan will bring the first breath of relief for beleaguered transit riders, if the money is actually there to make it happen," said John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, an advocacy group. "The MTA has come up with smart measures that can reduce delays and improve the riding experience in the near term."

But he added that unless Cuomo comes up with a reliably funded long-term plan for transit, "we’ll be right back in emergency mode next year."

Other Cuomo critics took a dimmer view of the request for funds from New York City.

"If Chairman Lhota thinks he needs more money for this plan, he shouldn’t demand it from the most overburdened taxpayers in the country," said Brandon Muir, executive director of Reclaim New York. "He should pick up the phone, call his new boss and demand some of the billions the governor is wasting on bridge light shows, failed economic development programs and a glorified hiking trail."

Lhota has been snippy with the mayor in recent days, but on Tuesday said he has "tremendous respect" for de Blasio, who defeated him in the 2013 mayoral race. Lhota then hit perhaps the most conciliatory note between the Cuomo administration and the mayor in weeks, although it could be interpreted as a nice way of asking for money:

"We need to be partners on this," he said. "More than anything else, we need to be partners."

He even backed off the his and the governor's earlier assertion that the city bears ultimate responsibility for the subway system due to a clause in the charter documents of the New York City Transit Authority, which formed to run the trains in 1953 and which the MTA absorbed in the 1960s. The PowerPoint presentation he gave Tuesday included a line emphasizing that the city was the legal owner of the system, but Lhota declined to read it and denied the city was liable for the full cost, as Cuomo had claimed last week.

"The city is not responsible," Lhota said. Cuomo later commented, "Now is not the time for pointing fingers, but for moving forward—together as New Yorkers."

Lhota said the MTA would look to collaborate with Transit Workers Union Local 100, which represents manual workers and station agents. Some advocates have argued the authority should look to push the union to accept different contract terms to save time and money.

Instead, Lhota has appointed its president, John Samuelsen, to the new advisory board alongside other labor and civic leaders.

"The last thing in the world I want is any kind of labor dispute," he said.

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